Under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, if you are born on U.S. soil, you automatically are a citizen. Now, President Donald Trump is looking to end that.
The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
Hours after taking office Monday, Trump issued an executive order to end it.
Lauren DesRosiers is an Albany Law School Visiting Assistant Professor and Director of the Immigration Law Clinic.
"There are a couple things that really stick out to me when we finally got the text of the executive order last night," DesRosiers said. "The first is that it is pretty squarely contradictory to existing law and existing precedent, so it is completely against the 14th Amendment, which is a Reconstruction amendment from the Civil War era, and it has been settled law since 1898 when the Supreme Court decided that children of immigrants born in the United States were covered under the 14th Amendment, but that applied to pretty much everyone in the United States, except for very small selection of children of diplomats. The Executive Order as it exists cannot overcome a Constitutional amendment, it would either have to be decided by the Supreme Court and overturn over 125 years of precedent or a full amendment of the of the Constitution."
Refugee and Immigration Support Services of Emmaus Executive Director Daniel Butterworth says he's been listening to the news of Trump's actions "with a lot of trepidation."
"It would be a more difficult effort for him to get rid of birthright citizenship, because of how enshrined it is in our politics. But a number of the others, far as suspending or canceling Temporary Protected Status for folks from certain countries, and ending humanitarian parole for folks from certain countries, you know, he's already started. He fired the three top officials in the U.S. immigration system, declared a national emergency on the southern border to limit the flow of folks across that border. It's just, it's coming fast and furious. The thing, though, is that there are no details. We have no more information than a line or two, that we're seeing in the press. And so it's hard to navigate that without having many details. So at the moment, we're keeping an eye on things, trying to keep our folks calm. We definitely have a lot of anxiety amongst our client community though, and rightfully so," said Butterworth.
DesRosiers says the American Civil Liberties Union has already filed a lawsuit in district court. She notes the Executive Order is wide-ranging.
"It's not just people who are undocumented or are currently in any sort of temporary humanitarian status. It is incredibly broad. So the way that this is written, it covers people who are here under student visas, it covers people who are here under a temporary work visas. It covers a broad number of people," DesRosiers said.
The order takes effect in the next 30 days.
DesRosiers says whatever happens with the order’s legality, it’s a pivotal moment for immigrants.
"I cannot give legal advice, but I think that it's always a good idea to document as much as you can and maintain as much documentation as you can, and if you have the opportunity to talk to an attorney, now would be now would be a good time to try to find some sort of consultation," said DesRosiers.